by Parliamentary Opposition Leader, DAP Secretary-General and MP for Tanjung, Lim Kit Siang, in Petaling Jaya on Wednesday, 2nd March, 1994:
Human Resources Minister, Datuk Lim Ah Lek should intervene to resolve the NUTE overtime boycott as well as persuade the Cabinet to allocate 30 million Telekom shares to Telekom non—executive employees to resolve the ESOS dispute
The Malaysian public are very concerned about the overtime boycott launched by the National Union of Telekom Employees (NUTE) to back its claims for the upgrading of employees from Grade B to F, which has been overdue since 1992. The NUTB overtime boycott would become a work-to-rule by its 22,000. Telekom members after two weeks.
It is clear that unless these disputes are resolved fairly and justly, Telekom services which are already very unsatisfactory in certain parts of the country would ‘deteriorate in the coming days and weeks.
The Human Resources Minister, Datuk Lim Ah Lek should intervene to resolve the NUTE overtime boycott, as it would reflect very poorly on both his Ministry as well as Telekom if this becomes the first example of industrial unrest folio-wing privatisation of an essential service.
In this connection, Datuk Lim Ah Lek should also persuade the Cabinet to resolve the Telekom -Employees Shares Option Scheme (ESOS} dispute, where the 28,000 non-executive Telekom employees had been unfairly denied the right to participate in ESOS, One solution is for the Cabinet to allocate another 30 million shares from the government stake in Telekom – as the Government still owns over .75 per cent of Telekoms – for the 28,000 Telekom non-executive employees.
Tan Sri Rashdan Baba should be removed as Telekom Executive Chairman if he cannot give satisfactory explanation as to why the 28,000 Telekom nonexecutive employees were denied ESOS
The Cabinet should -institute an inquiry as to why the 28,000 non-executive Telekom-employees were denied their share in the 29.5 million Telekom shares under the ESOS, as they were all distributed to the 3,000 executive employees – including 300 lots to the Telekom Executive Chairman, Tan Sri Rashdan Baba, himself!
The Cabinet must take a serious view of such abuses of privatisation and take necessary actions against the culprits involved!
If Tan Sri Rashdan Baba cannot give a satisfactory explanation as to why the 28,000 non-executive Telekom employees were denied of their ESOS, he should removed as Telekom Executive Chairman because he would have committed a grave breach of trust against the Telekom non-executive employees.